IT Assessment Service – Storage & Data Protection

btn_contactPTS’ Data Center Storage Assessment Service provides IT Managers with analysis, feedback and a detailed Technology Roadmap related to storage & data protection for their existing Storage infrastructure, viable recommendations for upgrading or improving storage infrastructure, the risks associated with upgrading or doing nothing at all, as well as a high level budget and timeline for completion of the proposed project.

PTS will use these high-level assessments as a baseline in a cost model matrix to identify the affect on overall project costs across multiple scenarios, thus allowing the client to narrow the scope of the project to one that is affordable, yet meets company business needs.

Completion of this service requires the PTS’ Needs Analysis – Storage & Data Protection (to establish future storage requirements) and, where there is a prior storage infrastructure in place, a Site Survey Service – Storage & Data Protection (to gather existing conditions information) as prerequisites before a complete assessment can be made.

PTS’ Solutions Architects will perform a detailed assessment of the current storage infrastructure as acquired during the Site Survey and compare to the needs of the organization in the future as acquired during the Needs Analysis. The Assessment – Storage & Data Protection Service provides the following outcomes and recommendations for the client:

  • Storage capacity requirements of the existing enterprise versus the future need for storage capacity
  • Recoverability capabilities of the enterprise in terms of recovery time and recovery point objectives as compared to future projections and needs
  • Current structure of near- and off-line storage for survivability and ease of access to data as compared to the future needs for survivability and ease of access to data
  • Current security parameters used to maintain data storage integrity as compared to industry standard security requirements
  • Overall complexity of the storage infrastructure today versus what it will evolve to if the storage and data protection were to remain the same and grow in its current state
  • Actual storage spending as a percentage of total IT budget and how this compares to industry averages

The Assessment – Storage & Data Protection Service serves as a basis for design in the progression of the computer room project process. This component is the third step in the eleven-step process.

Data Center Project Process Data Center Consulting Data Center Design and Engineering Data Center Products Data Center Construction Data Center Commissioning Data Center Implementation Data Center Monitoring and Control Data Center Operations and Maintenance
Features Benefits
Assess the storage infrastructure as it stands today against future requirements that support growth, data protection, survivability, and overall storage needs Establishes a reference document for any planning and design related to storage and data protection requirements for the future of the enterprise
Determine the key criteria that will serve as a basis of storage design Establishes the design criteria and better defines the scope to determine your technology requirements and therefore the costs associated with designing and upgrading the infrastructure. The analysis at this stage of the project ensures monetary savings of time and money by avoiding mid-course changes.
Understand the present fault tolerance, disk utilization and load balancing solutions as compared to the future growth model Understanding the level of fault tolerance and RAID disk configurations is important to the overall project cost and design as they relate to business continuity and system fault tolerance
Understand and document existing fiber/ copper cabling design and connectivity and availability requirements with the business’ needs and objectives Understand the existing physical cable infrastructure is critical to ensuring proper connectivity, documentation and ability of the infrastructure to support the technology upgrades with/without an investment in cabling and connectivity
Establish the IT equipment deployment density strategy with future load deployment considerations Understand the planned critical load deployment density on a watt-per-RLU basis and match it to the best cooling systems design methodology
Cost impact of making design criteria decisions Understand how load, availability, and density decisions impact the project budget as a first step in narrowing the scope to a project that is affordable, yet meets the business’ needs

To learn more about PTS’ Storage Consulting Services, contact us or visit:

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